demonstration
The vote count will take until Saturday, apparently, but of course all reports are indicating an overwhelming victory for Mubarek. All in all, it was not such a crazy day yesterday as the media, the school and my imagination, perhaps, indicated it would be.
I arrived in Midan Tahrir, in downtown Cairo at just before midday, and looked around for the crowd of people who were supposed to be filling the square. On a corner near the American University I saw about 30 people standing around with Kefiya stickers, and about another 20 or 30 European and Arabic photographers, journalists and cameramen arriving and anxiously scanning around to see where their story was. Slowly, more and more people arrived, and they headed out, shouting, through the stream of traffic, to the middle of the square. Over the next hour the crowd grew to about 300 people, which is (a) astonishingly little considering the population of Cairo, (b) about 200 people less than the spectators of the demonstration itself, both Carienes and journalists, who flooded the sidewalks and balconies and pushed and shoved to get a good spot. The white uniformed police, bellies swollen and faces stern, directed the constant traffic through the middle of the crowd; buses, taxis, motorbikes and cars bleeting and weaving through the thicket of shouting people. Men scribbled on posters of Mubarek's face, an old woman was hoisted up to lead a chant against Hosni, her voice thin and wavering over that of the crowd. Then came the Mubarek supporters, about 10 or 15 people holding up his picture and shouting for their president, and obviously trying to push through the anti-Mubarek crowd in order to create some sort of fight. Many people said they were paid to be there, an accusation which has some sort of support in Mubarek's own comment that if 'he ever wanted people to go out and demonstrate for him, all he'd have to do is pay them'. Despite their antagonism no scuffles broke out, and the significantly larger crowd managed to almost completely drown out the Mubarek guys. Slowly, the protest snaked around the square, the police constantly trying to push it out of the way of irrate drivers, and then bent backwards and headed up Tahrir Street, towards the Syndicate of Journalists. Through the cars and up the street it flowed, but the whole protest refused to grow, refused to change into anything but what it had started as.
Which, when you are judging it by western standards of protest is really very small, but when you consider that a year ago this sort of thing was impossible in Egypt, it was a great sight to see.
I'll put up some photos soon.
I arrived in Midan Tahrir, in downtown Cairo at just before midday, and looked around for the crowd of people who were supposed to be filling the square. On a corner near the American University I saw about 30 people standing around with Kefiya stickers, and about another 20 or 30 European and Arabic photographers, journalists and cameramen arriving and anxiously scanning around to see where their story was. Slowly, more and more people arrived, and they headed out, shouting, through the stream of traffic, to the middle of the square. Over the next hour the crowd grew to about 300 people, which is (a) astonishingly little considering the population of Cairo, (b) about 200 people less than the spectators of the demonstration itself, both Carienes and journalists, who flooded the sidewalks and balconies and pushed and shoved to get a good spot. The white uniformed police, bellies swollen and faces stern, directed the constant traffic through the middle of the crowd; buses, taxis, motorbikes and cars bleeting and weaving through the thicket of shouting people. Men scribbled on posters of Mubarek's face, an old woman was hoisted up to lead a chant against Hosni, her voice thin and wavering over that of the crowd. Then came the Mubarek supporters, about 10 or 15 people holding up his picture and shouting for their president, and obviously trying to push through the anti-Mubarek crowd in order to create some sort of fight. Many people said they were paid to be there, an accusation which has some sort of support in Mubarek's own comment that if 'he ever wanted people to go out and demonstrate for him, all he'd have to do is pay them'. Despite their antagonism no scuffles broke out, and the significantly larger crowd managed to almost completely drown out the Mubarek guys. Slowly, the protest snaked around the square, the police constantly trying to push it out of the way of irrate drivers, and then bent backwards and headed up Tahrir Street, towards the Syndicate of Journalists. Through the cars and up the street it flowed, but the whole protest refused to grow, refused to change into anything but what it had started as.
Which, when you are judging it by western standards of protest is really very small, but when you consider that a year ago this sort of thing was impossible in Egypt, it was a great sight to see.
I'll put up some photos soon.
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